FTA's budget pleas
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WHILE HAULIERS are pressing this week for immediate action on fuel tax, a more comprehensive shopping list has gone to Chancellor Nigel Lawson from the Freight Transport Association.
In a submission sent in nine weeks before the March 19 Budget, the FTA has called again for vehicle excise duty to be reduced so that operators pay no more than their track costs.
According to the submission, the current ved rates give the Treasury a £500m surplus over track costs from goods vehicles, and result in 38-tonners being taxed by at least £1,300 over their allocated track costs.
''Goods vehicles should pay their track costs but no more. This would ensure equal treatment with other forms of trans port and would remove the present penalty which rightly does not apply to any other type of industrial investment," the FTA told Mr Lawson.
Associated with this, it has asked the Department of Transport to enact its promise to introduce a concessionary tax rate for articulated tractive units dedicated to use with lightly plated two-axle semi-trailers.
It has called for a widening in the tax differential between dery and petrol to encourage use of dery and reduce the tax bill on industry.
It has also called for a clear Government statement on its intentions for fuel tax policy so that its member companies may make long-term decisions on their capital investment projects.
In return for tax taken from the industry, the FTA wants Mr Lawson to expand the Section 8 railway/waterway capital grants scheme to provide cash aid to operators who move their operating centres to more environmentally acceptable locations.
It has renewed its call for tolls on estuarine crossings to be abolished, as their debt has climbed from £268m in 1978 to £500m today and is unlikely ever to be paid off by toll revenue.
The FTA has added its weight to the growing call for more expenditure on infrastructure, and wants the country's oil and gas revenue to be used to finance projects which will improve road links for industry. It also wants money spent on local roads.
It has called for the requirement for bank or insurance guarantees against vat deferment on imports to be removed and for Customs warehousing to be made available for goods subject only to vat.